Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Taste buds

Pinky Tripathi
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sense of Taste
Acrylic on paper, 72x53cm

The sense of taste evolved in the earliest vertebrates, subject to different interpretation by organisms. Taste is mediated through taste buds, each supported by a narrow connective tissue papilla from the underlying tissues through which the taste buds get their nerve and blood supply. Each taste bud has a small opening—the taste pore through which it remains in direct contact with the external environment. A taste bud is typically composed of supporting cells (sustentacular cells) and elongated neurosensory taste cells arranged like segments of an orange. The taste cells at their free surface have taste hairs that project at the surface of the epithelium through the taste pore.


PINKY TRIPATHI, PhD, works at the Infectious Disease Research Laboratory at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. She uses elements of composition and balance of colors to create her image of taste buds.

Highlighted in Frontispiece Winter 2015 – Volume 7, Issue 1

Winter 2015

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